Funeral services set for family that perished in Nov. 16 Riverhead house fire

Funeral arrangements have been set for the five people who perished in a downtown Riverhead house fire last month.

Zonia Dinora Rivera, 41, her children, Carlos Cifredo Peñate Rivera, 24 and Andrea Isamar González, 16, and her nephews, Douglas Edgardo Rivera Aguirre, 24, Carlos Alberto Ramos Aguirre, 22, perished in their third-floor apartment in the multi-family home at 46 East Second Street.

Visitation will take place Friday, Dec. 17 from 5 to 9 p.m. at Tuthill-Mangano Funeral Home at 406 E. Main St. in Riverhead and a funeral Mass will be held Saturday morning at 9:30 a.m. at St. John the Evangelist Church in Riverhead. Burial will take place in the family’s native Guatemala.

Tuthill-Mangano Funeral Home donated the funerals for the family.

The Nov. 16 blaze swept through the century-old home late in the evening. It was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived at the scene at 10:37 p.m. Residents in apartments on the first and second floors were able to escape but the family on the third floor was trapped in their apartment, according to investigators. Suffolk County Arson Squad detectives said their preliminary investigation indicated the cause of the fire was not criminal in nature.

Dinora Rivera came to the U.S. from Jeréz Jutiapa, Guatemala 11 years ago. She worked as a house cleaner. Her daughter Andrea, who remained with her grandmother in Guatemala, had only arrived in the U.S. on Oct. 8 and had begun school at Riverhead High School two weeks before her tragic death. Peñate Rivera, her son, and her two nephews, worked in construction.

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